


This Attachment Foolishness

by WingletBlackbird



Series: Jedi History, Organisation, and Culture [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Control, Gen, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, indoctrination, jedi order, toxic ideology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 08:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17742533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingletBlackbird/pseuds/WingletBlackbird
Summary: How the Jedi in the prequels held a warped view of "attachment." Did it really mean "no love"? Or does it just mean "letting go?" Is there a difference?





	This Attachment Foolishness

I’ve seen a lot of posts circulate about how the Jedi define “attachment” as clinging to something selfishly. There is talk about how psychologists call non-attachment a good thing. It means living in the present. It means mastering and letting go of you emotions. It means if you aren’t attached to a person or an idea or what have you, you will be less inclined towards jealousy, anger, pride etc. It is healthy and good. All of this is true! Yes, non-attachment. as the psychologists define it, or even the Eastern philosophies do is not a bad thing,  _but that isn’t what the Jedi do_. It might have been what they used to do, but it is not what they do in the prequels.

In the promotional material for AotC, there was the phrase “A Jedi shall not know anger, nor hatred, nor love.” It doesn’t say a Jedi shall let these emotions go, or that they will master them and not be ruled by them. It says a Jedi is not supposed to have them at all. It’s not some misinterpretation either, because the movies support this stance. If Jedi were allowed to love, they would be allowed to keep in contact with their families. I have no problem with them having to be trained young, (although infancy is a bit much), given that most cultures with a sword-wielding warrior sect began training at young ages. However, if the Jedi were allowed to love, just not selfishly, they would not be cut off from their families entirely in the name of not forming “attachments.” No contact with their biological family is allowed, nothing whatsoever. The simple fact is, the Jedi remove them to indoctrinate them, and prevent them from forming strong emotional ties with their birth family. This is because they are  _not allowed to love_. This is also why they cannot marry. It’s not because they cannot love selfishly, because a marriage with selfless love would be a great marriage. No, it is because the Jedi are _not allowed to love_. Knowing your birth-family, and getting married are not mutually exclusive to the concept of true and healthy non-attachment. The reason why it is forbidden to have any kind of family is because the Jedi do not practice the healthy form of non-attachment, whatever they may want to believe. That may be what they used to do and believe, but it has long since been perverted, out of fear of the Dark Side, into something toxic. 


End file.
